Sinister Resonance

At last, a re-issue of the 1963 recording of Cowell playing several of his piano works in his casual style, so that the listener regards the unusual sounds and techniques as completely natural within the context of each piece's imagery. A recording of the complete piano works is definitely needed, but this CD, with Cowell's spoken commentary at the end, is a precious thing to have at the moment.

Anthology is the first John Wetton compilation to draw exclusively from his solo albums. Why hadn't anybody thought of doing this before? Well, common sense for one thing. Not that Wetton's solo albums are bad, but they tend to be maudlin; jam 18 of these babies together on a single disc and you can suck the air out of a pretty big room. Even Wetton himself doesn't lean so heavily on his own handiwork, interspersing his live shows with material from Asia, King Crimson, and UK. For the irredeemable optimist, Anthology poses less of a problem; the sound quality is very good and there are some strategically placed reprieves from sadness along the way ("Jane," "Round in Circles," "I'll Be There").